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Week 4

Black Slaves on a Tobacco Farm

Hugh Jones, an Anglican clergyman and professor at the College of William and Mary, wrote about slavery in his book The Present State of Virginia (1724).

The Negroes live in small cottages called quarters, in about six in a gang, under the direction of an overseer or bailiff....[This person] takes care that they tend such land as the owner allots and orders, upon which they raise hogs and cattle and plant Indian corn (or maize) and tobacco for the use of their master....

The Negroes are very numerous, some gentlemen having hundreds of them of all sorts, to whom they bring great profit....[For] the sake of this they are obliged to keep...[the slaves] well, and not overwork, starve, or famish them, besides [offering] other inducements favorable to them; which is done in a great degree...especially [to those] that are laborious [hardworking], careful, and honest....[However]...some masters, careless of their own interest or reputation, are too cruel and negligent.

The Negroes are not only increased by fresh supplies from Africa and the West India Islands, but also are very prolific among themselves....[Those] that are born there talk good English and affect our language, habits, and customs....[Though] they be naturally of a barbarous and cruel temper, yet are they kept under by severe discipline upon occasion and by good laws are prevented from running away, injuring the English, or neglecting their business....

Their work is to take care of the stock and plant corn, tobacco, fruits, etc., which is not harder than thrashing, hedging, or ditching....[Though] they are out in the violent heat, wherein they delight, yet in wet or cold weather there is little occasion for their working in the fields, in which few [masters] will let them be abroad, lest by this means they might get sick or die, which would prove a great loss for their owners....

Several of them are taught to be sawyers [people who saw lumber or trees], carpenters, smiths, coopers [barrel-makers], etc....[Though] for the most part they be none of the aptest or nicest, yet they are by nature cut out for hard labor and fatigue, and will perform tolerably well, though they fall much short of an Indian that has learned and seen the same things....[Those] Negroes make the best servants that have been slaves in their own country, for [those] that have been kings and great men there are generally lazy, haughty, and obstinate; whereas the others are sharper, better humored, and more laborious.

SOURCE: Hugh Jones, The Present State of Virginia (New York: Joseph Sabin, 1865).